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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. officials warn of looming hunger crisis across Southern Africa amid deepening drought; Biden Administration invests billions to innovate and decarbonize manufacturing; Melting polar ice is changing Earth's rotation; PLUS: America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is now operational... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Just 57 companies churn out 80% of post-Paris emissions; Warming is getting worse, so scientists just tested a way to deflect the sun; US saw staggering growth in solar and wind power over the last decade; Will Bitcoin, data centers and cannabis risk US climate goals?; Spinning, whirling fish in FL prompt emergency response; US aims to 'crack the code' on deploying geothermal energy at scale; Cranes return to Ukraine: birds of joy in a war-torn land... PLUS: A guide to electric car disinformation... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• U.N. warns of looming hunger crisis in Southern Africa due to deepening drought:
• Tens of millions facing hunger and water shortages as extreme drought and floods sweep southern Africa (CNN):
  
  The drought has been fueled by El Niño, a natural climate pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean along the equator, which tends to bring high temperatures and low rainfall to this part of Africa. When it does rain, dried-out ground is unable to absorb the moisture, making flooding more likely. El Niño is exacerbating the impacts of the climate crisis, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, which is driving more frequent and severe weather — including drought and floods — across southern Africa.
• VIDEO: Severe drought and famine in southern Africa leaves some 20 million facing hunger (All Africa News),/li>
• Zimbabwe declares state of disaster as El Nino-linked drought devastates southern Africa (AP)
• VIDEO: Extreme drought in southern Africa leaves millions hungry (AP):
  
  Francesca Erdelmann, the World Food Programme’s country director for Zimbabwe, said last year’s harvest was bad, but this season is even worse. "This is not a normal circumstance," she said... "They say this drought, with this type of heat that they've experienced, has not happened before."
• Melting polar ice is changing the Earth's rotation:
• Polar ice is melting and changing Earth’s rotation. It’s messing with time itself (CNN)
• VIDEO: Ice Loss, Sea Level Rise – Means We Are Running Out of Time (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time (Nature):
  
  An analysis published in Nature on 27 March has predicted that melting ice caps are slowing Earth’s rotation to such an extent that the next leap second — the mechanism used since 1972 to reconcile official time from atomic clocks with that based on Earth’s unstable speed of rotation — will be delayed by three years...Leap seconds cause so much havoc for computing that scientists have voted to get rid of them, but not until 2035. Researchers are especially dreading the next leap second, because, for the first time, it is likely to be a negative, skipped second, rather than an extra one added in.
• Why do we need a leap second? A physicist explains what is messing with the Earth's rotation (Phys.org/MSN)
• Biden Dept. of Energy invests $6 billion to decarbonize heavy industry:
• Biden admin invests $6B to cut carbon from steel, cement — and snacks (Canary Media):
  
  [T]ackling this planet-warming pollution is particularly challenging. That’s because facilities consume extraordinary amounts of energy and heat, at levels that are often difficult to supply with electricity alone. Some processes, like turning raw ore into iron or “cracking” molecules into different kinds of chemicals, are complex, multistep — and have only been done at scale using fossil fuels.
• VIDEO: How heavy industries contribute to climate change and what can be done to cut emissions (PBS NewsHour):
  
  "$6 billion is by a very large margin the largest investment, not just that America has ever made, but that anybody has ever made, in cleaning up the greenhouse gas emissions from this sector. But the manufacturing sector in the United States is like a few trillion dollars a year as a portion of our economy. And so this is a fantastic and inspiring down payment. But, obviously, this is going to be just a start."
• Biden admin plans historic $6 billion industrial carbon offensive (Axios)
• New England to close its last coal plants:
• Last coal-burning power plant in New England set to close in a win for environmentalists (AP):
  
  Granite Shore Power said Wednesday it reached an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to close the Merrimack Station in New Hampshire by June 2028. As part of the deal, the company said the site will be turned into the state’s first renewable energy park that host solar power and battery storage systems. The company also said it would shutter Schiller Station in Portsmouth in December 2025. That facility, which is permitted to use oil, coal and biomass, has not operated for several years.
• New England’s last coal plants will close by 2028 (WBUR)
• Fish and Wildlife Service reverses Trump-era Endangered Species Act rollbacks:
• Biden ESA rules reverse Trump moves and revive big debate (E&E News)
• The Biden Administration Just Rescued Parts of the Endangered Species Act (Mother Jones):
  
  It’s been an uphill battle for proponents of a stronger ESA; the three-year process to unwind Trump’s rollbacks has faced steep bureaucratic hurdles and pushback from Republicans, which are only expected to continue now that the rules are finalized. And while environmental groups have lauded the positive impacts these updates could have, some say the ruling doesn’t go far enough.
• America's first utility-scale offshore wind farm is now operational:
• 35 miles east of Long Island, the U.S. has its first large offshore wind farm (AP):
  
  "It's great to be first, we want to make sure we're not the last. That's why we're showing other states how it can be done, why we're moving forward, on to other projects," Hochul told The Associated Press..."This is the date and the time that people will look back in the history of our nation and say, 'This is when it changed,'" Hochul added.
• VIDEO: Governor Hochul Announces Completion of South Fork Wind, First Utility-Scale Offshore Wind Farm in the United States (Office of the Governor of New York)
• The complicated truths about offshore wind and right whales (WGBH):
  
  xperts, backed by mortality data, say they now die almost exclusively from two causes. Over the last seven years, 39 right whales were seriously injured or killed by entanglements; lobster, snow crab, and jonah crab gear are primarily blamed. Right whales are also often killed by vessel strikes, or run-ins with boats.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists' Daily Headlines page

• Handful of producers churn out 80% of post-Paris emissions (Axios)
• Why Highway 1 is going to keep falling into the sea (Politico)
• Warming Is Getting Worse. So They Just Tested a Way to Deflect the Sun. (NY Times)
• US Saw Staggering Growth In Solar And Wind Power Over The Last Decade (Grist)
• Will Bitcoin, Data Centers, and Cannabis Risk US Climate Goals? (Floodlight News)
• A Guide To Electric Car Misinformation (Part 2) (Heated.World)
• Why Is the BLM Still Clearcutting Piñon-Juniper Landscapes? (Sierra Magazine)
• Light at the End of the Tunnel: Millions of killer culverts lurk beneath North American roadways, strangling populations of migratory fish..the United States is trying to fix them (Hakai Magazine)
• Midwest Maple Syrup Producers Face Record Warm Winter As Climate Changes (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
• California Is Top U.S. Emitter Of A Planet-Warming Termite Pesticide (LA Times)
• Cranes in Ukraine: Birds of Joy in a War-Torn Land (The Revelator)
• Court Approves 3M Settlement Over PFAS Chemicals’ In Public Drinking Water (AP)
• Spinning, Whirling Fish In South Florida Prompt Emergency Response (Guardian)
• Enviva Bankruptcy Fallout Ripples Through Biomass Industry, U.S. and EU (Mongabay)
• US Aiming To 'Crack The Code' On Deploying Geothermal Energy At Scale (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• 'In A Word, Horrific': Trump's Extreme Anti-Environment Blueprint (Guardian)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist's Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)

                 

Article Categories: New York, New Hampshire, Environment, Joe Biden, Green News, Coal, Wind energy, Extreme weather, Agriculture, Africa, Arctic, Dept. of Energy, Antarctica, Infrastructure, Kathy Hochul, Electricity